at combination that has come calling today terrible traffic tuesday. everything you need to know before hitting the roads. good morning. welcome to "news4 today." i'm eun yang. >> i'm aaron gilchrist. adding to any traffic trouble this morning we could be in for heavy down pours today. right now not a whole lot of rain that could change. here is storm4 meteorologist veronica johnson to break it down for us. >> i notice you didn't have your coffee out. >> parched. >> all right. we're talking about some heavy rain. that's later today. this morning i like the fact that we're getting a break and seeing the moderate rains move on out of the area. 76, the temperature right now with a mostly cloudy sky. we're at 85% relative humidity. that dew point temperature right now at 71 degrees. here it is. storm4 radar. you can see those showers up

around hagerstown. 73 aroundarlington. reston, too, 72 degrees around camp springs and around maryland. 8:00 a.m. this morning, showers possible. mainly light. these will be scattered showers. your temperatures, low 70s to upper 70s. by noontime today, mostly cloudy. still, a gray sky with those mixture of clouds and a little bit of sun for today. occasional shower, haefrier rain, i think, will be west along areas of i-81 and making their way in. for your afternoon commute, 5:00, areas of rain. isolated thunder. get up to 85. it's during the afternoon and evening rush when we could be getting the heavier pockets and downpours. danella? >> still keeping an eye on metro and a situation there with the entrance escalators down at foggy bottom and metro station. single tracking on the orange line. disabled train at benning road causing delays on the blue line as you make your way to

franconia-springfield. i-66 starting to look heavy on the brakes as you make your way eastbound from the bypass. we'll talk details in ten minutes. eun, over to you. >> thank you. it is back to school for hundreds of thousands of students in northern virginia. that includes the 11th largest school district in the county. fairfax county. they are set to welcome back more than 180,000 students today. here's a map of all the school districts where students will be heading back to school today. the new school year also means new rules. there is one big controversial changes parents in arlington are upset about. tracee wilkins is live with more on that. good morning. >> good morning. this is around transportation and who will be walking and riding buses. arlington hasn't so much changed the policy as what it's doing down is enforcing an old transportation policy. the changes have upset some parents more than 200 parents have actually appealed after finding out their kids were going to have to walk instead of taking the bus like they did in

previous years. 1500 students will be walking this year. students living within a mile or mile and a half of their secondary school are supposed to walk. according to arlington transportation policy. many of those kids were going to nearby bus stops instead. this year, students who have been approved for bus travel will have vouchers. those without vouchers will be allowed on the bus but parents can expect to be contacted by school officers to find out why their child asked to board a bus. they are expecting additional students but have not purchased new buses because they're trying to direct more money into the actual classroom. in order to help it out with these changes pexpect to have more folks in the crossing guards and increased police presence around the school zones. everyone, pay attention to these kids who are going to be walking to school this year in arlington. i'm tracee wilkins, news4. today also marks the first

day on the job for prince george's county new superintendent. he's a 32 year veteran in the education field. he comes to prince george's from d.c. county schools. the district will continue to look for a permanent replacement superintendent. the democratic national convention begins today in charlotte. delegates will vote on the party's platform on this opening day. tonight will feature several speeches from prominent speeches from governor mart ten in o'mal. this is the same honor president obama had at the convention in 2004. first lady michelle obama will also speak tonight. president obama is not in charlotte for the convention just yet. today he will be in virginia forthfinal stop on his road to charlotte tour. the president will speak this morning at norfolk state

university. he was in charlottesville last week to campaign part of a tour of college towns in battleground states. the president will speak at the dnc thursday night. >> if you are willing to work with me. if you're willing to work even harder in this election. then i promise you, i promise you, i promise you change will come. >> republican national committee is launching the web ad to coincide with the start of the convention. the ad compares speeches president obama gave this year to speeches me made four years ago. republicans say it proves the president has broken his promise to a improve our economy. you may not know it but the polls just opened for thousands of voters in northern virginia. there's a special election there today. it is the -- it's for the virginia vish virginia's 45th district. three men are running three replace david england who resigned from the house of delegates after his extramarital affair went public. polls will stay open until 7:00 tonight. 6:05.

73 degrees. ahead, the drug that could be stunting your child's growth. plus, making his first public appearance since a naked photo scandal. what prince harry told one little boy. also, a sticky start right now. when we can see serious downpours. your weather and traffic on the ones ahead. next online, they're calling her the subway snuggler. her the subway snuggler. video that put one guy in

i'm barack obama, and i approve this message. mitt romney's position on women's health...it's dangerous. vo:mitt romney and paul ryan would get rid of planned parenthood funding. and allow employers to deny coverage for cancer screenings and birth control. we can't afford to let him take away our choices... to take away basic health care. vo: both backed proposals to outlaw abortions...even in cases of rape and incest. i don't think that women's health issues have faced a crisis like this in decades.

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yeah, it's a little bit embarrassing. a woman dozes off in a london subway train and snuggles up with a complete stranger. as soon as she realize what's she did, kind of pops up there. they both had to a. good little laugh about it. of course her friend, quote, unquote, friend caught the whole thing on camera phone and posted it on youtube because that's what friends do these days. >> i guess so so. >> now, this guys wife apparently was not laughing when she first saw it.

whoa. yeah, there's the snuggle. that's it. the wife wasn't so happy when she saw this the first time. she thought her husband was cheating with the woman he works with. he explained what happened though and she laughed it off. >> i knew she was going to put his head on her shoulder but whole arm hugging thing. >> that's a new level. >> maybe she was having a dream about her significant other. >> possible. time for weather and traffic on the ones. storm team4 meteorologist veronica johnson with our rainy day forecast. hi. >> yeah. always good to have a good laugh, right, at somebody else's expense. no, that's not good. we're talking about some more wet weather for us today. outside it is humid again. we've got the big puddles left over from yesterday. damp conditions and, again, high humidity. rain up to the north and moving out of here. temperatures currently, 71 in chantilly. we've got to come apart coming in at 76.

prince george's county, hill cyst crest heights. sandy spring coming in at 7 2. kensington right now, 72 degrees. your forecast, hometown forecast, 82 by the noon hour today. showers and storms, 3:00, 84, 85 degrees. you guessed it, more of the same like yesterday. rain and heavy downpours at times this afternoon and evening. right now getting a live look from chopper 4 at the dulles toll road. if you're traveling inbound here. outbound as well. nice and clear in both directions no. not a lot of volume just yet. i-66 heading eastbound past 234. you're heavy on the brakes. delays here continue right around centerville. once you pass centerville it's not bad. live look at fairfax county parkway with nice and clear eastbound in the beltway. your travel speed, 53 miles per hour. that drive taking 11 minutes. some good news on metro. single tracking on the orange line, it's gone.

single tracking on the blue line, disabled train. addison road to stadium armory. back in ten minutes with another look and your traffic. aaron and eun, over to you. 6:12. hollywood mourning the loss of a big star. plus, this is what happens when you drive drunk in a bulldozer. wait until you see what some very angry people did to the guy behind the wheel. and isaac unearthed something

this morning hollywood is mourning the death of actor michael clarke duncan, best known for "the green mile." duncan died yesterday morning in los angeles. he had been in the hospital since suffering a heart attack in july. bebe sides "the green mile," duncan's resume includes "armageddon" and "talladega nights." he was engaged to former "apprentice" star am rosa. he was just 54 years old. controversial and hotly anticipated account of the raid that killed osama bin laden hits book store shelves today. "no easy day" is a firsthand account by a man who took part in fact operations. it's dominated headlines because it contradicts the original account by the pentagon.

the pentagon is threatening legal action over information released in the book. "no easy day" is already number bun on "the new york times" best-seller list because of preorders. this morning one of the world's more notorious drug smugglers is dead. s a assassins on motorcycles shot and kill her. she spent nearly 20 years in prison for drug trafficking and murder in the u.s. police here believe blanco was behind more than three dozen murders. she was deported to colombia in 2004. jurors in the drew peterson murder trial will hear close arguments today. it featured three near mistrials over the past five years. he's charged with first degree murder in the downi ing death o his third wife kathleen savio. prince harry stopped a 6-year-old boy from embarrassing him at his first public appearance since nude photos of the royal leekds. the prince attended an awards

ceremony honoring sick children. one of the honoree, 6-year-old alex logan, told a british tv station he would tell the prince, quote, i'm glad you got your clothes on, prince harry. the prince was watching and he stopped logan before the ceremony and he see there, knelt down to his level and told him not to ask about it as he jokingly wagged his finger at him and smiled. the scandal never came up and the prince sort of alluded to it. >> -- quite frankly too remarkable me to describe with mere words the level one to shine going forward, i'll give it ago. >> wouldn't say you were shy, no. two weeks ago a website published nude photos of prince harry and a woman in hlas vegas. he was reportedly playing strip pool in his hotel room. tiger woods became golf's first $100 million man. the former number one golfer in

the world eclipsed the market a third place finish at this weekend's deutsche bank championship. he won nearly $550,000, pushing him to a career total of $100,3 $100,350,000. the nationals will have a winning season for the first time since moving to washington. the nats clenched the winning record with yesterday's 2-1 win over the cubs. they still lead the braves by 6 1/2 games in the national league east because atlanta also won yesterday. and this is not steven strasburg's replacement on the nats rotation. it's katie ledecky. she threw out the first pitch before the nationals game. it called off a pretty good summer for ledecky who won a good medal in london last month. kids who use asthma inhalers may grow up to be shorter than

their peers. children will take the steroid twice a day ended up being about an inch shorter than other adults. researchers say doctors should monitor the growth of their young patients but also point out the drug's benefits outweigh the risk for children with asthma. a developing story right now in southern california. firefighters calling for re-enforcements as they battle the wildfire in the angeles nbl forest, near north los angeles. 300 firefighters are fighting the williams fire on the ground while half a dozen helicopters are dropping water from above. that fire has burned more than 4,000 acres in the an gabrielle mountains. it's only 5% contained right now. it broke out sunday near a camp ground. that forced thousands of people to evacuate during the busy labor day weekend. this morning crews are making progress restoring power after hurricane isaac hit the gulf coast. less than 44,000 people are without power in louisiana. energy restored -- entergy

restored power. an eighth person died from the storm. authorities found a 90-year-old man dead in his home near new orleans. the damage from isaac could total more than $2 billion. president obama toured new orleans promising help for survivors. >> one thing you know about folks in louisiana, they are resilient. people in mississippi, they are resilient. they know what tough times are like, but they know that they can bounce back. >> meanwhile, officials are pumping out water from a swollen lake in mccomb, mississippi. they fear water may breach the earthened dam that's holding back flood water from isaac. isaac also turned up a mysterious ship along the beach on the alabama coast. check this out. the vessel is about 137 feet long. it's made from iron and massive slabs of wood. experts are trying to identify exactly where it came from. some believe it's from the civil war era. others think it's a schooner that was used for smuggling

liquor during the prohibition. >> a lot of mystery surround that one. folks who live in the area are along the civil war relic line but wondering if that was maybe at some point used to protect them. 6:21 is our time now on this tuesday morning. some of us dealt with showers in the overnight hours. >> storm team4 meteorologist veronica johnson is here to talk about the rain. >> kind of like what we had yesterday. yesterday we had those scattered showers and some heavier downpours throughout the area. this morning we've got a high humid kind of start to our day. very high humidity. the dew point temperature now at 71 degrees. temperature at 76. a puddling morning, too, lots of puddles left over from last night. 77 at 8:00 a.m. noontime, 83. i think we will see a high today of 85 degrees. possible heavier rains coming our way during the late afternoon and evening hours as temperatures start to dip down to the low 80s. your rain racing up to the knot

and east. the heavier stuff you can see there around philadelphia and around new york city. but again, during the afternoon, those downpours that could lead to more trouble on area roadways. congestion is building in our area right now. live look as you make your way on the outer loop of the beltway to exit 22. vw parkway, starting to hit the brakes. a bit sluggish on this area. let's head over to the beltway. a live look past university boulevard. on the outer loop here. also increasing in. i'll give you a travel speed. not bad at all. right now, 53 miles per hour. 11 minutes to get from 95 to 270. hurry out of the house because you know that's going to change soon. good news, disabled train at benning road. that train's gone but you are still seeing some delays along the blue line. >> thank you, danella. the major construction project that begins today and will last for nearly two years

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you know, this is one of the most incredible videos you're doing to see for a long time. home video caught a drunk man in russia barreling a stolen front-loader, front end loader into several parked cars. when his rampage was over this angry mob descends on him, pulls him from the cab and beats him up. look at this. not clear how that ordeal began or whether anybody involved would face any charges. yes, eating your veggies is important but paying more to buy organic foods may not be worth it. it can cost twice as much as conventional. new research finds no significant difference between the two when it comes to nutrition and safety. researchers at stanford university says organic food did have less pesticides but not any more vitamins or nutritional

value. it has the same risk for bacterial contamination caused by salmonella or e. coli. it's not so much about the nutrition maybe. it's about how much pesticides you want your children to ingest. time right now is k67 27. still to come, the big decision first lady michelle obama says she hasn't made yet. hundreds of thousands of school children are waking up a little earlier than they would like. the message police have for drivers. veronica will tell you whether you need to send the kids off with umbrellas this

back in session. this is the first warning that kids from every major school district in the area is heading to class. drivers are being warned to look out and leave early. welcome back to "news4 today."

i'm aaron gilchrist. >> i eun yang. no matter whether you're heading to school or work, an umbrella is good to have today. >> meteorologist veronica johnson on the storm team4 weather deck. what it is like right now? >> it's humid, warm. our storm team4 weather deck is still wet. this is the kind of day with you want to stay umbrella ready. the small one, the rain jacket, you're not going to need to pop it or use it this morning but i think it's a good idea to put it in the kid's back cac and cram that jacket in there because i think you will need it as you get off the bus and head open later today. look at that. we've got a mogsly cloudy sun rise. 6:40. just a couple of minutes away. 76, our temperature currently. reagan national with high humidity again. light wind. winds will pick up a little bit b again later today. ft. washington, maryland, 72. lease berg, virginia, 72. arlington at 73 degrees.

going up to a high temperature today, 85 degrees. again, warm and humid at the bus stop this morning. eun, aaron? >> thanks. it is bag to school for hundreds of thousands of students in our area this morning. >> the combination of more than 7,000 buses with more than 2 million people heading out to work will add up on the roads. >> today is terrible traffic tuesday. the day when just about everybody heads back to the daily grind after the final summer get away. >> danella will have your traffic in a men it but, first, megan mcgrath has more on what to expect this morning. good morning. >> reporter: well, good morning. we're expecting a very busy day here as schools in fairfax county open up later on this morning. we're here outside oakton elementary school at chainbridge road. we have a few hours ago before the kids head back to class. we are expecting a lot of traffic congestion today. this is the area's largest

school system, fairfax county. more than 181,000 students returning to class later on here. so we're expecting to see a lot of buses out there on the roadways as well as kids walking on neighborhood streets and sidewalks. be extra careful. of course, we also have all the people who are returning from their last big summer vacation. they took time off over the labor day weekend. they're all returning to work later on this morning and getting back to the grind as well. we are expecting a lot of congestion out there on the roadways later on this morning. again, keep an eye out for those kids. fairfax county police will be out in full force looking for people who don't stop for the buses and are speeding through the school zones. they're going to write tickets beginning today. with a little bit more on traffic we're going to go now to danella sealock. >> definitely slow on i- 67, you know. terrible traffic tuesday. if you're traveling i-66 as you make your way eastbound from the bypass. it's stop and go from you. live look at 50.

stop and go all of the way to 50. drivers are driving away at 23 miles per hour. 66, not seeing any accidents though. let's head over to i-95. as you make your way towards the beltway. here's a live look at backlick road. travel speed t from the occoquan, that drive taking 14 minutes. again, it is stop and go in that area. traveling along i-270. you're feeling the heat, too, really at shady grove. volume is increasing here in the beltway. no accidents though. the most delays on i-270 out of frederick. very slow all of the way to clarksburg. eun, over to you. a traffic alert for drivers in bethesda. a new construction project will only add to the traffic heada e headach headaches. woodmont avenue is closed and it will stay that way for nearly two years. the closure is necessary for construction of two high rises on what used to be one of the biggest parking lots in the

area. they're also building an underground parking garage. until construction is completed montgomery county will increase the circulator buses and convert 100 long-term parking spaces to hourly spaces. and a traffic alert for drivers in the district. a major construction project called the new hampshire avenue streetscape project will reconstruct or resurface the street between h street and dupont circle. the big change is the one-way section of new hampshire avenue between washington circle and m street will be turned into a two-way street. crews will also redo sidewalks, crosswalks, storm drains and put in new lighting. it's expected to take 18 months. a former campaign aide to d.c. mayor vincent gray will be back in court. thomas gore admitted to funneling money to a minor mayoral county and covering up the payments. brown says he was paid to attack then mayor fenty. bore is one of three campaign aides to plead guilty.

he could serve up to 18 months in prison. a prince george's county family is recovering from carbon monoxide poisoning. the family of five lives on reicher street. when everyone in the house woke up yesterday with headaches and nausea, the parents realized those are symptoms of carbon n monoxide poisoning and called 911. they are all expected to be okay, today family and friends will pay their last respects to a maryland naif s.e.a.l. killed in afghanistan. a viewing will be held at the george p. call his funeral home in his hometown of edgewater. many people lined the streets as his body was taken to the funeral home. the service is tomorrow at ft. meyer memorial chapel in arlington followed by a burial at arlington national cemetery. he died in a helicopter crash in afghanistan last month. the coast guard is search for a missing boater. two people fell from a sailboat

into the chesapeake bay, 12 miles north of annapolis. the crews rescued the woman but lost sight of the man. the "today" show is next at 7:00. let's check if with matt lauer. matt, good morning to you. >> good morning to you. it's noo i to see you. coming up on a tuesday here on the program, savannah will be live in charlotte, north carolina, as the democratic national convention gets under way today. plus, republican vice presidential nominee paul ryan will join us for an interview. also ahead, the tributes are pouring in for michael clarke duncan who died on monday at the age of 54. then a brazen crime wave caught on tape. families using kids and babies as diversions to pull off robberies. one of them to the tune of half a million dollars. we'll show you how they do it. prince harry makes his first public appearance since his trip to las vegas. he pokes fun at his now infamous party photos. we'll have more on that story and we'll be joined by "today

"'s's professionals right here on "today." back to you. >> busy morning. see you soon. coming up on 6:38. a school district taking heat this morning for a change parents have been fighting for months. plus, prime time appearance. the starring role mayor martin o'malley is giving at the dnc. a cloudy start could turn [ harry umlaut ] that's one creamy muller. [ sally umlaut ] it's greek-style yogurt. thick, scrumptious, and more protein than those regular yogurts. are those almonds i see in the corner thingy? caramelized almonds i think you'll find. well, who wants ordinary run-of-the-mill almonds when you could have the caramelized kind? if i was this girl, i'd caramelize my whole apartment. weird. this greek style yogurt has style. you can say that again. why thank you. this greek style yogurt has style.

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it's right of passage for kids today are cashing in on those baby teeth like never before, though. blame it on inflation. a new survey out from visa shows that kids now get an average of $3 per tooth under their pillows. that's up 15% from last year. come kids reported getting $20 a

pop for the baby teeth. some teachers say peer pressure is to blame when the kids brag about how much the tooth fairy left. today visa is launching an iphone app to help parents calculate the going rate. we want to know how much money the tooth fairy is leaving for your kids. let's us know on the "news4 today" facebook page. i for one am not going to succumb to peer pressure. >> one lady said her daughter asked if the tooth fairy was on a fixed income. yes. keep an eye on the weather, v.j.? >> that's right. some day it's all going the end for them, right? where they turn in their last tooth, then no more. so cherish that, right? out there this morning, you know, it's mostly dry but the air, damp, sticky, yucky again. seeing more rain showers lifting north and east of our area. very scattered. only a few left now around winchester, northern loudoun

county, leesburg. around hagerstown. wet weather along areas of i-70 north of martinsburg. temperature wise throughout the area, 71 degrees in herndon. mitchellville, 7 3. 73 in crofton. that's our hometown forecast. 82 by noontime today. 84, your high. a little more showers and storms coming in for the afternoon. with any of those storms, again, those downpours where you get a lot of rain in a short period of time. let's see what's happening now on area roads. right now in the first4 traffic report, start with rails. entrance, escalator were down at foggy bottom metro station. not now, that's good news. downed tree is blocking your lanes at beach drive between joyce road and blagden avenue. traveling along 50, this time eastbound at 301. have a report of debris in the roadway there. watch out. if you're traveling inbound. let me give you a live look as you make your way on 50 inside the beltway at 202.

this is where you're starting to hit the brakes. delays continue as you make your way towards 201. aaron, back over to you. >> thank you, danella. almost 6:44. most prominent democrats are in charlotte today for the start of the democratic national convention. president obama though is not in charlotte yet. like thousands of parents, he will take his kids to school for their first day today. first lady michelle obama will speak at the dnc tonight. her speech may be almost done but the first lady says she still doesn't know what she's going to wear. maryland gov her martin o'malley will also differ a speech tonight. yesterday on cnn o'malley clarified comments he said earlier that our country isn't better off than it was four years ago. >> can you honestly say that people are better off today than they were four years ago? >> no, but that's not the question of this election. we are clearly better off as a country because we're now creating jobs rather than losing them. >> republicans have repeatedly said in recent days that the country is worse off now than it

was before president obama took office. speakers at the dnc may offer new insight into how mitt romney does business. the obama campaign says we'll hear from a number of employees from companies managed by romney's former private equity firm bain capital. they will talk about how the private ek kitty world works and how bain capital was one while romney was the ceo. this convention is about more than just this year's election. some d.c. delegates, about winning a voice in congress for the district. d.c. voting rights activists are holding a rally this afternoon in charlotte. d.c. el gate eleanor holmes nor on the says nothing will get done unless the movement gets more aggressive. >> so the people who get their rights usually do so in a flame of movement. dramatic action has to be taken or else nothing dramatic is going to happen. >> voting rights activists are almost making presentations to state delegations and urging delegates to wear red shirts with pro-d.c. messages.

stay with news4. jim vance and tom sherwood are in charlotte with live reports. president obama wraps up his road to charlotte tour today in virginia. recent polls show the president is slightly ahead op mitt romney in the common wealth. romney is narrow that lead. republicans also campaigning in knot care this week. paul ryan was in greenville yesterday. that's about 250 miles from charlotte. this it was republican vice presidential nominee's third solo trip to the tar heel state. virginia governor bob mcdonnell will spend tomorrow and thursday in charlotte campaigning for mitt romney. if you're willing to work even harder in this election. then i promise, i promise you, i promise you change will come. >> republicans are launching this web ad to hammer home their point this country is worse off now than it was when president obama took office. the rnc also launching a website

called "obama isn't working." it features articles and statistics they say prove we are no better off than we were four years ago. polls are open for special election in northern virginia. it's for virginia's 45th district which includes parts of alexandria, fairfax county, and arlington. three men are running to replace david england who resigned from the house of delegates after his extramarital affair went public. polls will stay open until 7:00 tonight. it is back to school for hundreds of thousands of students in northern virginia. that includes the 11th largest school district in the country. fairfax county. set to welcome back more than 180,000 students today. it is also the first day of school for more than 22,000 students in arlington county. this year the school district is eliminating 12 bus stops. the move forced hunts of students who used to take the bus to walk to school instead. tracee wilkins is live with more on the policy and petition against it. tracee, good morning. >> we're looking at an estimated

1500 additional students walking to school in the arlington area. so drivers, of course, you need to be aware and be careful of all those kids. know this is all about a transportation policy that now arlington county will be enforcing this year. the changes have upset some parents paul ryan more than 200 parents appealed after they found out their kids would have to walk to school after being able to bus in previous years. the students living within a mile of their i'll meantry school or a mile and a half of secondary school are supposed to work. but many of those kids were going to nearby bus stops instead. this year students who have been approved bus travel will have vouchers. those without vouchers will be allowed on the bus. the parents can expect to be contacted by school officials to find out why their child asked to board a bus instead of walking. arlington is growing and expecting 1,000 additional students this year but they have not purchased new buses this year because they say they want to direct more of that money

into the classroom. now, they're going to be additional crossing guards around the school areas and also additional police as well. enforcing the speed limit around the school area, just make sure you're being careful this morning looking out for the little ones as they head off to school. reporting live in arlington, tlais tracee wilkins, news4. today marks the first day on the job for prince george's's county new interim superintendent. he's a 32-year-old veteran in the educational field. he comes from d.c. public schools. the former superintendent went to become philadelphia's chief. here is some news drivers might want to hear this morning. gas prices dropped ever so slightly in the last 24 hours according to aaa. the prices though still tough to take. national average, $3.82 for a gallon of regular unleaded. fill up in the district though will cost you more than that. $3.99 on average. in maryland, the state price is

$3.77 right now. virginia, fill up there is $3.68. west virginia, a little heighter at 3.89. the higher prices have a lot to do with hurricane isaac. courtney, the big question, are things getting back to normal in the gulf? >> good morning. things are getting back to normal slowly but surely. it was weeks since hurricane isaac reached the gulf coarse and still off line, 39% of natural gas equipped the same way. that's a significant decline from just even sunday when 72% of oil and 56% of natural gas were still shut in. only 71 oil platforms in the gulf of mexico remain unmanned. only one refinery is shut down. that's the philips 66 alliance refinery in plaquesmines parish, louisiana. back to you. >> thank you, courtney. potential for heavy rain has one d.c. neighborhood bracing for more flash flooding.

rain turned it into a river. cruise had to use a small boat to rescue a man from his car. some homeowners are spending thousand to try to keep the water out. >> when it starts to overflow it comes into is sump pump here and gets pumped out. >> backflow preventer in, inside. >> yes. >> d.c. water says pipes in the area are too old and too small to handle the huge fwloe of water. they are looking into short-term solutions. >> veronica is here now to tell us what we can expect rainwise today. will it be that bad? >> i'm thinking around loudoun county, frederick county, maryland. it's not the morning hours that we have to worry about at all. i'm just saying some scattered showers. the afternoon, especially the late afternoon and evening hours, different story for us. 76, your temperature. look at that, overcast sky. sun rise today, 6:40. by the time we get to early october, oh, that's after 7:00

in your sun rise. humidity, it's been a problem, issue for a lot of people. the last couple of days, especially in the early part of the day before a little bit of sun comes out and allows the opportunity to kind of mention out or at least mix down. temperatures throughout the area, 70 north mt. airy, 74, la plata. on the radar you can see what i'm talking about. late showers in northern loudoun county, northern, areas of frederick county. back out at west we've got a line in from frostburg and petersburg, west virginia, that will be moving through. so that closely defined storm that was once isaac really falling apart but the tropical moisture lingers. today we're going to pick out a weather front around the area. big storms up around philadelphia and new york city this morning. if you've got any travel plans, maybe you're jumping on the train, wet up there right now. more storms, too, for the afternoon. here we are early tuesday. your showers and storming coming

in about noontime and increasing as we get to three and 4:00 today. downtories possible. stay with me. i'll be sure to tweet out any weather conditions for this afternoon. and as far as that seven-day forecast goes, again, it will be topping out in the mid 80s. right now, veronica, it is terrible traffic tuesday. let's start in maryland as you make your way on 29. slow southbound as you head towards lockwood drive. heavy on the brakes. delays continue to the beltway. speaking of the beltway, live look right now as you make your way on the outer loop. there are slow here at colesmill road. heavy on the brakes at i-95. travel speed is 34 miles an hour. delays on 395. live look at duke street. you're slow here as you make your way to seminary road. good news, no accidents. but sluggish all of the way to the 14th street bridge at about 41 miles per hour.

aaron and eun? >> actually, you keep going, i think. >> oh, what? today you will see a new face on "news4 today." it's premier of the "steve harvey" show. a big part of what he's going to do is help people involve problems. he offered an a. solution on on ongoing debate right here on "news4 today." >> you know, i save more insurance. >> i need you to help us. it's about to be anarchy. so eun yang every morning, she needs to spray her hair. i spray my hair. we use hairspray at the desk. iron gi aaron gilchrist gets upset. as i watch this, i think, how does this continue? is there a way to co-exist? >> yeah, okay. who is this guy? >> aaron. >> aaron. now, eun yang and danella are going to use hairspray. >> that's true. >> that's not going to stop. >> it's not going to stop. >> what's his name? >> aaron. aaron need to understand that, because you all's hair is more important -- >> it is. >> -- than his coffee. >> i agree! >> let me ask aaron something.

>> yes. >> why don't aaron move his coffee? >> that's what eun says. >> see, are you all spraying your hair at the coffee machine? >> no. >> no. he brings his coffee to the hairspray area. >> that's true. >> set it down and now want everybody to stop spraying hairspray because he's got his coffee there. let's just settle this right here. >> you might have saved us. >> now, hold on here just a second because steve knows it just as -- there is a makeup room right outside that door and that is where the hairspray should be sprayed. >> he also knows that we have to fix it up a little bit during the 2 1/2 hours we're here on the air, right? >> thank you very much. >> and did you hear what steve harvey said, our hair is more important than your coffee. can we put that down, write it down somewhere. >> i'll lose this one. >> it's 3-1 this morning. >> don't miss the premier today at 2:00 right here on nbc4. you lose.

you're outnumbered. >> i like steve harvey already. out the door forecast for today. it's going to be a warm one today. mid 80s. sticky like yesterday with showers and storms, the greater chance for the afternoon. the evening rush heading home, and then tomorrow's even looking wet, too, guys. >> there is a film on my ipad, too, from hairspray. that is "news4 today." thank you for starting your day with us. >> it's my mom's birthday. happy birthday, mom. i love you.